"Cmd Buzz Corey" wrote in message
...
cl wrote:



For some - it may! One argument I've heard, is that those musically
inclined pick it up quicker than others, yet I knew some who "were"
musically inclined and claimed to have a hell of a time with it. Reason?
I don't know. I can't get inside their head.

I used to teach Novice classes, and I always assumed that anyone could
learn the code if they really wanted to. I found that some people had
difficulty telling the difference between a dit from a dah unless it was
sent very slowy and the dah made a lot longer than the dit, but when
sending a character that contained several dits or dahs or combinations,
they simply could not tell one from the other. It wasn't that they lacked
the skill to learn the code, I could right out characters in dits and dahs
on the board and they could recoginize them, it was an interpertation
problem with the brain of telling the sound of a dit from the sound of a
dah. People with hearing aids often had a difficult time.

You can get special tests and use special accomodations (such as code with
longer dahs than normal making for more of a distinction in dits and dahs)
if their hearing is truly a problem. My ex had a 70% hearing loss in each
ear AND constant ringing in the ears. However, he managed his 5wpm without
special accomodations other than using headphones and a very loud volume.
Other people might need a different pitch or need the dits and dahs
separated by pitch either for their initial learning exercise or even for
the test.

People with hearing aids will often have problems with many sounds not just
code. The training and test material must be set to a pitch that they can
hear.

The number one reason people have problem with code is unrealistic
expectations on how quickly they can learn it. They see the "wunderkinds"
who can do it in a few days and think they are failures if they can't
duplicate it. In reality the average person needs TWO MONTHS OF DAILY
PRACTICE FOR 30 MINUTES PER DAY. Until they have done that, they can't say
whether they have a problem learning it or not. And of course they must
use good training methods. After that period of time, even if they don't
yet have it down, they will be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

The second biggest reason people have a problem with code is simply not
committing to learning it.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE